


What about you?

by Test_Tube_Writer



Series: Nuclear Throne Story Mode [1]
Category: Nuclear Throne (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Origin Stories, i wrote this instead of paying attention in class, part of a story mode/happy ending au, the author takes a bunch of liberties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22352599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Test_Tube_Writer/pseuds/Test_Tube_Writer
Summary: Rogue has thought about asking since she first laid eyes on them, but she never had the courage to actually say it. Until now.“What was it like?”
Relationships: RebelRogue
Series: Nuclear Throne Story Mode [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609027
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	What about you?

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Contains swearing, use of numbers as letters, and Melting. So...body horror.

The gang of mutants she had joined up with were good people. She’d been invited into their party without too many distrustful glares and was allowed to share the warmth of the campfire come nighttime. Some nights, if she was up to it, Rogue would join in on their pre-dinner singing sessions, the trashtalk lyrics garbled but cheerful in her mouth. 

They had fought so many battles together that she had come to view them the same way she had her fellow officers in the I.D.P.D. But there was a question that had burned in her mind since she had laid eyes on them. A fierce, burning question would not allow itself to be pushed aside for long. 

“What was it like?” It bounced around her brain. What did it feel like to have the old you torn away, and have a new one rise from the ashes?

It was their last night in the desert. After a long battle, no, more like a war, with the resident bandits their leader had been gunned down and the tribe had scattered. Their newest member, a turncoat from the bandit tribe, sat just outside the circle of firelight. Rogue stole glances at her from time to time. She wondered what the bandit, Rebel, was thinking. And also what state her body was in underneath the bandages that covered her form. 

“What was it like?” The question pounded against her skull 

Fish plucked at his guitar with long, curved nails. The webs between his fingers stretched and wrinkled as his hands moved. It was while she was staring that the question surged forward, escaping from her battle weary mind and into the cold night air. 

“What was it like?”

The question flew out of her mouth before she could stop it. It wasn't as if she hadn't been thinking about asking it for the last few days, but she'd hoped to phrase it in a more delicate way. A way that didn't make it sound as if she saw them as freaks. 

“What was it like…” Crystal folded her polishing rag and laid it over her lap. “You mean to mutate?”

Crystal had become a close friend the minute Rogue had appeared. She mothered over all the mutants both in and out of battle. The first few fights Rogue had found herself more than once trapped behind Crystal’s shield form. She’d tried telling the mutant that her suit could withstand a few bullets, but Crystal had only clicked her tongue (or mimicked the noise very well) and mumbled something about squishy human skin. 

Fish, who had been tuning his guitar, paused. “I was wonderin’ how long it would take you to ask.” He said with a grin. 

“I thought it would be a sensitive topic.” Said Rogue. 

Fish laughed, gills shining in the firelight. “Kid, I’m a fish in the middle of a freakin’ desert. I can’t afford to be sensitive.”

“Ju5t 5ay fuck 1ike eva 1 e1se.” Y.V. said. The gun god floated next to Eyes, who was sitting on a log and tearing maggots out of the sand with their mind. Y.V. hovered over the empty spot next to the mutant and shuffled a stack of brilliant green paper. 

“Language!” Hissed Crystal. 

“Fr1ck u,” he retorted. 

A gurgling groan alerted the group that Melting was awake. Through the fire Rogue could see the amorphous bundle of flesh roil into a more comfortable position. She shuddered. Of all the mutants, she found Melting to be the most unsettling. They never spoke, at least not in front of her, and the naked, somber skull that marked their head gave her a stomach churning feeling of dread. 

Crystal sighed and turned back to Rogue. “It’s funny, I don’t think we’ve actually swapped our mutation stories with each other before.”

“Wait, really?” She asked. 

“Are you serious?” Fish tightened a string on his guitar as he thought. “Shoot, I guess we didn’t. Either that or I forgot.”

Crystal clapped her hands together, making a sharp clacking sound. “Ooh! It can be a group bonding exercise.”

Eyes made a muffled sound of ridicule, two eyes rolling skyward at the notion. Y.V. floated off to do his counting elsewhere. Melting gurgled softly, their indication of sleep. Undeterred, Crystal smoothed her polishing rag over her lap and sat up a little straighter. 

“I’ll go first, then.” She said clearing her throat. “Before the blast happened I was a school teacher. We were learning about the rock cycle that day. Explains a lot, doesn't it?”

Rogue smiled behind her respirator. “It sure does.” It made sense that such a compassionate being would dedicate her life to working with children. 

“I had a wonderful class that year,” she continued. “Such brilliant little minds. I could barely keep up with them some days. Right, the rock cycle. We had gone to the quarry outside of town.” Crystal unfolded and refolded her rag. “The sky was such a pretty blue. They were bundled up in coats. Was it September, or was it November?” Her hands wrung the cloth. “It didn't make a sound, you know. Something so big and deadly, it should have given us a warning. They were all so scared; hiding behind me as if I could protect them.” The cloth was twisted between her fists as if she were wringing it for water. “I tried, I really did try.”

Crystal looked up. Rogue was taken aback by how much sorrow was written across her craggy face. “Squishy human skin...doesn't shield the same way crystal can. Crystal can shield.”

She wanted to hug the mutant. Wanted to pat her back and tell her how sorry she was. When Rogue had imagined the apocalypse survivors she had thought of lost family members, homes, and pets. Crystal hadn't even lost children of her own. They had been the children of adults she likely saw every morning; shared pleasantries with in a carpool line while holding a cup of coffee. What had she looked like back then with her squishy human skin and ante rage of young students? What had she gone through when she came to afterwards? Had there been corpses? Had there been any remains at all?

“Crystal-” She started. 

“Ah, I've rambled.” Crystal snatched up her cloth and scrubbed at her bicep. “Who would like to go next?”

A soft guitar chord cut through the dry air. Rogue hadn't noticed that there had been no noise out of the guitar while Crystal had talked. 

“I'll go, I guess,” Fish said. He ran his fingers over the strings as he talked, backing his words with a tuneless song. “I was a cop. Nothin’ special either. Just patrolled the streets and handed out speeding tickets. The music paused and he sighed. “I was a day from retirement.”

On the other side of the campfire Eyes laughed. He slapped his knee and wiped tears out of his eyes while releasing hysterical muffled sounds. Rogue was glad her respirator hid her grin. She was familiar with the trope from her squad’s bi-weekly movie nights. The humor of it was not lost on Fish, either. Fish glowered at the laughing blue mutant, but was obviously trying to suppress his own smile. 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Fish muttered. Something glinted in his eye and he smiled. “Just don't complain when I give ya the...stink eye.”

Eyes’ eyes narrowed and his laughter changed into a long, pained moan. Rogue chuckled and Eyes pointed at her, screaming what sounded like a muffled, “Don't laugh at that! It makes him stronger!”

Fish executed a complicated riff while the snickering died down. “It wasn't painful like I thought it’d be.” He said once it was quiet. “After the blast I still looked like me. I found my way to the city docks and met up with another group a survivors. The fish stuff started a few days later. Probably because we were eating, well,” he leaned the guitar against his log seat and stretched. “Was mostly itchy, growing the scales and fins. All my teeth fell out and these choppers grew in.” He flashed a sharp-toothed smile. “The gills were weird too. It took a while before I was able to breath on land again. Sure am glad I didn't get stuck with just the gills.” 

“You had to re-grow your lungs?” Rogue asked incredulously. 

“More like they needed to mutate into a state to take both water and air. At least that's my theory. After all the changes were over I struck out for the Throne.”

They were all quiet for a while. The Nuclear Throne hung over them. To Rogue, it seemed to fill the air with a rotten smell. She remembered watching the Commander’s monitor over her shoulder. Remembered the battered mutant that slumped on the Throne, it's voice bouncing off the ancient throne room walls as it recited a kind of proclamation. Rogue looked around at the others. Would they all survive to see that room? To see one of their own claim that seat?

Melting shifted and raised their head. The empty socket of their skull seemed to bore into her. “Skin started melting off.” A pause for breath. “Never stopped.” With that the mutant curled back in on itself and returned to unconsciousness. Rogue’s skin felt itchy. 

“Mind if I sit here?” 

Rogue jumped as the bandit appeared next to her. Without waiting for an answer she sat down and shrugged off her pack. “There's a reason we camp around barrels.” She jerked her head towards the dark horizon. “Can't stand the cold.”

Rogue shifted. Her strategy of taking out unsuspecting bandits by blowing up their flaming barrels felt awfully gruesome now that one of their kind was sitting next to her. Crystal, cheerful and friendly as ever, welcomed her as if they hadn't spent the last few days slaughtering her tribe mates. Rebel nodded her thanks. 

Soon they were all roasting maggots over the fire. Eyes had unearthed enough sticks for all of them and had been skewering any of the pale bugs unlucky enough to enter his telekinetic range.

Rogue, for the time being, didn't need to eat. The I.D.P.D had developed skin patches that kept their soldiers nourished and hydrated while on long missions into the irradiated dimensions. NutriPatches they were called. She had two back ups left. After that she would be eating radiated pests like the others. She shuddered and pushed the thought out of her mind. 

Fish slurped his down and belched loudly. “Eyes, what about you?” 

“Mph?” He poked at the ground with a broken piece of stick. 

“What was mutating like for you? Care to share?” 

Eyes glared at him. 

“Maybe you can act it out?” Offered Crystal. 

Eyes looked at them. Rogue still found it a bit uncanny that the blue mutant was able to watch all of them at once. With a pantomimed sigh Eyes stood up and dusted off his lap. After an exaggerated bow and pushing back hair that he didn’t have Eyes began his reenactment. 

He screamed and clutched at his throat, eyes wide in terror. He fell to the ground and flailed about clawing at the ground and sky. Suddenly he lay still, twitching every few seconds. Then, he stood up and bowed again. 

Crystal clapped enthusiastically. “Very believable!” She gushed. “Wonderful acting.”

Eyes flopped back into his spot on the log. Based on his half lidded eyes Rogue guessed he was either tired, irritated, or reliving the memory of his mutation had sobered him. But it was always hard to tell with Eyes. Y.V. returned to his spot beside him, still thumbing his stack of currency. 

Rebel stared at Eyes, and he stared back. Rogue wondered if he ever got tired of watching everyone at once. She wondered if it gave him a headache. 

“I was too young to remember the blast.” Rebel said. Her voice was scratchy and rough, but strong. “My brother did, though. He used to tell me about it.” Rebel tilted back her head and watched the flying embers reach for the dim yellow stars. “Before the radiation got to his head he would always check my wraps to make sure I'd cleaned them. Apparently I started changing right after the blast, whereas he took longer. It was a very painful process from what he told me.”

Rebel met her eyes and she looked away. She hadn't meant to stare. 

“You wanna see?”

Rogue’s eyes widened. “No, no, you don't have to-”

“I don't mind.” Rebel interrupted. “Besides, everyone else here has theirs on display. Why shouldn't I do the same?”

She slowly unwound the bandages from around her hand. Rogue could see that they were worn and thin, almost see through in some places. And there was so much more than she had expected! A pile of limp ribbon sat in the bandit’s lap and still she was unwrapping more. The others had leaned forward to get a better look, and even Y.V. was glancing up from his counting to see what would be uncovered. 

Rogue was expecting skin of some kind. She had been training her face to remain neutral no matter what it looked like. She had thought of zombie skin from horror movie night, she had considered it could be blue or green like Eyes and Fish’s, or it could be something non-human entirely, like an animal. What she wasn't prepared for was the lack of skin. Rebel’s naked hand was pitch black. There was no sheen on it from the firelight. It seemed to absorb all light. As she watched the black began to drip. It had a consistency like syrup, but looked more like oil. Thick drops stretched downward before severing from the arm. The drops would be there for a split second, a suspended, perfect circle of black, before disappearing. 

“W4CK.” 

“I know, right?” Rebel said with a chuckle. 

“It's amazing,” Rogue said breathlessly. She reached towards it with a gloved hand. 

“Better not.” Rebel pulled her dripping arm away. “I can't guarantee what would happen to you if you touched it. And I think we both prefer you the way you are now.”

She nodded and moved her hand to her lap, face burning. “Right, thank you.” Some survivalist she was, reaching for an unknown radiated substance without a second thought. “Sorry.”

Rebel began wrapping the cloth back around her arm. “No problem.”

Eyes made a noise and Rogue looked up in time to see him share a look with Y.V. The two winked at her, Y.V. blinking his one while Eyes blinked one of his many. She furrowed her brow in confusion. 

“U$ele$$ le$b1an.” Y.V. snickered under his breath, too quiet for her to hear. 

“Alright, gang.” Fish slid down the log and onto the sand. Laying back against the sun baked wood he crossed his arms behind his head. “I say we get some rest. Tomorrow we'll scavenge together whatever food and weapons we can. Day after that we enter the sewers.” 

“F4nt4stic,” Y.V. and Eyes mumbled together. 

Rebel got up and returned to her lookout spot. Rogue watched her go before laying down. She checked to make sure her respirator was on tight. Watching her gloved fingers down the bridge of her nose, she wondered what it would be like to have a body like Rebel’s. Would her suit become her new skin keeping her goopy insides in the shape of a person? Or would it hang off of her skeleton like Melting? She felt the smooth ridge of her ear and imagined what it would be like to have them be replaced with fins, like Fish. 

She turned over on her other side and stared into the fire. There was a new question in her mind now. It didn't burn like the last one, instead it was cold, like an ice cube down her back. 

When would she become mutated as well?

She was never going to be allowed back in her home dimension. Even if she left this one after finding Hunter, all the other dimensions were in the throes of fallout. She only had two NutriPatches left, she had no replacement filters for her respirator, and no matter where she went there would be radiation and mutants. The booming laugh of the Big Bandit echoed in her mind. No, not just mutants. Monsters too. Another question reared its head, and this time she couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through her. 

Which would she become?

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know Crystal was always a Crystal, but I had a lot of headcanons before I bothered to check the Wiki and some were too good to discard. So Crystal used to be human now. 
> 
> Also Y.V. Is here early because I don’t know.


End file.
